market folly

Jana Partners, the hedge fund ran by Barry Rosenstein, has filed an amended 13D with the SEC and has disclosed a 4.6% ownership stake in Copart (CPRT). The 13D was filed due to their activity on December 5th, 2008. They have decreased their position to 3,864,494 shares. Previously, they owned 6,934,187 shares as of their last 13F filing (which shows positions as of September 30th, 2008). *2nd Update: And since filing this latest amended 13D, Jana has also filed a Form 4 with the SEC disclosing that they have sold an additional 13,150 shares of CPRT at a price of $26.89 on January 13th.

Jana has also filed an amended 13G with the SEC and has disclosed an 8.11% ownership stake in American Italian Pasta (AIPC). The 13G was filed due to their activity on November 30th, 2008. They have decreased their position to 1,575,000 shares. They previously had owned 3,026,223 shares back on September 30th, 2008. You can view the rest of Jana Partners' portfolio holdings here.

Ran by Barry Rosenstein, Jana was recently ranked 79th in Alpha's Hedge Fund Rankings. Jana was founded in 2001 and typically employs activist, market neutral, and long/short equity strategies in public equity markets. Rosenstein received his BS from Lehigh University and his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Jana has returned 20.9% each year annualized from 2001 til 2007. Rosenstein sees Jana's future in a strategy that uses management adjustments to force change at companies, which in turn can send shares higher.

Taken from Google Finance,

American Italian Pasta Company is "a producer and marketer of dry pasta in North America."

Copart is a "provider of vehicle remarketing services in United States, Canada and United Kingdom. The Company provides vehicle sellers with a range of remarketing services to process and sell vehicles over the Internet through the Company’s Virtual Bidding Second Generation Internet auction-style sales technology, which it refers to as VB2. The Company sells principally to licensed vehicle dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used vehicle dealers and exporters and, at certain locations, it sells directly to the general public."